A Bandwagon? Let Me Jump Gazelle Like Onto That Thank You!

I first saw the personal planner on Deer Little Fawn's post and as I was having a bad day at work I thought sod it I want one!  I love this little planner!  As the name would suggest I customised it to my hearts content; to do lists, training schedules, 2013 overview, squared paper, even the colour of the ruler!  My only regret is that I didn't design up the front cover more, but hey there is always next year!  

Vintage Wedding

I'm going to make something of a shock statement here: I hate weddings.  Being one of those shy retiring types I don't like having to put myself out there and I don't like having to talk to loads of people I don't know, I don't like the pressure of finding something to wear and also don't like being the awkward person who is allergic to milk and therefore a nightmare to cater for.  But then I hadn't been to a wedding where 80% of the people in attendance were from  Newcastle and I didn't need to put myself out there at all because I was called 'pet' a lot and was made to feel completely comfortable.  I hadn't been to wedding where the milk free food was delicious and after dinner I was allowed to change into my jeans (and thus freeing me from the corset that was a slightly too small dress).  I hadn't been to a wedding where the bride looked like a movie star and the groom (sporting a cigar and shades) looked like the Godfather!

Mr and Mrs Lovely, I hope you have a lifetime of happy times and happy memories, I can't wait to see you both again soon xx

Road Trip!

A pictorial journey from the South West to Derby (oop North to me, being a Southerner and all).

All packed with wedding clobber we jumped in the car and left Devon, the blue skies, fluffy clouds and animals frolicking to almost immediately hit traffic.  Hurrumph.  Luckily I had suitable reading material and MozzyMr was driving, win!  Along the way we passed a glittery lime green VW Transporter driven by a youth who we naturally assumed lived with his mum, how else would he afford to a) buy a new VW Transporter and b) bling the bugger up!?  We passed the best bit of the M5 by Bristol where on a good day you can see for miles.  We attended a lovely wedding (here is a sneaky peak of the lovely bride, but more of that on a later post), I wore a new dress, had new hair and took lots of photos.  We did origami, and MozzyMr styled it up with a cigar.

Heh heh heh and this is when I get evil.  The day after the wedding MozzyMr is in a delicate state, whilst he is weak and kitten like curled up in the front seat of the car I pull into his favourite store... but don't worry I bought him a desk lamp and a piece of cake he was perfectly happy.  And finally, when you're tired, sick of driving and other drivers, this lovely sign whooshes over head, because for us at least South West is best baby!

Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight.  This week I made my first visit to the island, not for holidays or joyous reasons but this isn't the place to go into that.  Instead I'll tell you about the beauty of the place, the quaint nature of it and the visitor attractions I am keen to go back and see; Fountain World, Butterfly World, Bus Museum, the Needles (with chair lift to the beach!) and of course the airstream caravan park!

Le Weekend

A weekend of luncheon with my aunt and uncle, a pint in the rain next to the river, some blue skies, getting pot-bound beetroot in the plot, of waiting for the apples to be ready for crumbles and harvesting a bumper crop of strawberries.

Allotment Geekery

A week away from the allotment and it has gone crazy!  Our peas have produced a good amount of pods and the additional peas I planted straight into the ground have come up and are looking healthy, I'm optimistic we'll have a good crop.  

As for our strawberries we have tonnes of them!  You can smell our little strawberry patch metres before you can even see our plot they smell absolutely delicious.  MozzyMr is great at making strawberry sauces which we'll freeze and I'm going to give jam making a bit of a go (Women's Institute ahoy!).

Our first garlic!  Planted in November we have waited, and waited and waited for the leaves to yellow and fall over, apparently this is a sign that they're ready to be dug up, and here we are!  The elephant garlic we planted a couple of months ago is making good progress it's all very exciting the only problem is that with all of the veg growing well the weeds haven't been doing so badly themselves so we have a lot of work to do to get things back to how it looked before we went on holiday.

A (couple of) Month(s) of Reading

Oh dear, what a woeful attempt at a 'regular' feature on my blog, it's a good thing I have a day job!

1. Enigma by Robert Harris

This is a re-read for me, but I'm planning on visiting Bletchley Park at some point this year so thought I would read a couple of books either about or based around the park.  I love this book and will probably re-read it again and again.  The story doesn't skimp on detail or intrigue, and is packed with facts about Enigma and Bletchley.

2. By Royal Command by Charlie Higson

The final Young Bond in the series and frankly the weakest, I found it a bit of a struggle to get through this one.  I should probably add a caveat to that statement; I have read three or four of the series in quick succession which probably wasn't the smartest move and the story was still good but the fantastical nature of Bond just gets boring after a while.

3. The Secret Life of Bletchley Park by Sinclair McKay

More Bletchley research with this one.  Good grief McKay is perhaps one of the most pompous writers I have ever come across, so patronising towards the women he interviewed I can almost visualise him patting them on the bottom and telling them to fetch his slippers.  It was only a wish to read something of the history of Bletchley that I actually bothered to read to the end of this book, and thankfully there were lots of really interesting nuggets of information to be had.  Did you know that maps of buildings were disguised within illustrations of butterfly wings and that there was a hut at Bletchley that was only every used as a hair salon?  

4. The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

Ahh The Book Thief *looks at book with dewy, soft focus, besotted affection* this was the book I gave away as part of World Book Night on 23rd April.  I had to keep a copy for myself and I had to re-read this book in celebration.  What an amazing story, with amazing characters, a completely refreshing piece of prose that everyone should read.

5. I Left My Tent in San Francisco by Emma Kennedy

My colleague Anne lent me her copy of Kennedy's first book 'The Tent the Bucket and Me' which was genuinely laugh out loud (and for those that know me I don't often laugh out loud, but don't worry I'm not dead inside I just don't laugh out loud much).  I Left my Tent [...] is a good tale, perhaps not as funny as The Tent [...] but still I would definitely recommend it and perfect for reading on holiday because no matter what, your holiday can never, ever be the disaster Kennedy and her friend Dee got themselves in...

Well that's it for now, I will hopefully get back on track with A Month of Reading especially because I have some interesting books line up that I've been told are worth a look, I'll let you know my humble little opinion when I've read them...